CLEVELAND, December 21 — The recent posting on the UTU website titled, “BLET members face huge legal fees,” is nothing more than an attempt by UTU leaders to divert attention from their own embarrassing predicament.
The BLET reported last week that UTU will be forced to use the dues money of its hardworking members to pay the legal fees of the largest and most powerful railroad companies in the world because of the indemnity clause in the “Letter of Intent” signed by UTU leaders.
“While UTU leaders issue idle threats about what they and their lawyers will do, the fact of the matter is that they agreed to pay for management’s legal fees,” BLET National President Don Hahs said. “It’s right there in black and white. It is obvious they are attempting to divert attention away from their embarrassingly close relationship with management.”
It is also “curious” that UTU leaders have publicly denounced “free riders” and “no-bills,” when many of their own members — in the UTU-E — belong to the engineer’s craft. Even though the BLET holds the contract for the engineer’s craft, UTU-E members have paid dues to the UTU for years. It wasn’t until the shoe was on the other foot — when trainmen began joining the BLET in droves — that these “no-bills” suddenly became problematic for the UTU leadership.
“It is a shame the UTU would insult its own UTU-E members by stopping just short of calling them freeloaders,” President Hahs said.